Drum loader



Oct. 14, 1947. J, PooL DRUM LOADER Filed Jan. 15, 1945 iii-i 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS OHN A POOL HAeLE's m. BAIPTHOLOMEW M/BVVELL V. "JOHNSON A Tree/v5 rs.

Oct. 14, 1947. J. A. POOL ETAL 2,429,193

DRUM LoADER Filed Jan. 15, 1945 5 Sheets-Shea; 2

JOHN A. POOL INVENTORS CHARLES M- BARTHOL OMEW M WELL V- 'JOHNSON ATTORNEYS L J. A. POOL ET'AL 294295193 DRIJM LOADER v Filed Jan. 15,1945 5 Sheets-Sheet :5

INVENTORS. JOHN A. POOL CHA RLES M. BAETHOLOME w MAF W51. L v. JOHN-SON A T TOE NE Y8.

Oct. 14, 1947. J. A. POOL. EI'AL 2,429,193

- I 15mm LOADER Filed Jan. 15, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTORS. JOHN A. POOL CH4 ELES M. BAQTHOLO/VEW.

A TTOE NEYS.

J. A. POOL EI'AL- DRUM LOADER Filed Jan. 15. 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS. gOHN A. P 0L HARLESM. ARTHOLOMEW MAW/ELL v.- JOHNSON n ax a 5 k ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 14, 1947 DRUM LOADEB John A. Pool, Palo Alto, and Charles M. Bartholomew and Maxwell V. Johnson, Menlo Park, Calif.; said Bartholomew and said Johnson assignors to Aaron M. Sargent, as trustee Application January 15, 1945, Serial No. 572,776

6 Claims. 1

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for the loading of drums, barrels and like containers.

It is an object of the invention to provide a wholly automatic and mechanical apparatus which will positively grip a drum or barrel by engaging its end flanges to permit the lifting and movement of such drum or barrel as an incident of loading or stacking the same.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a drum loader capable of handling a plurality of drums simultaneously and automatically,

adjusting itself to any misalignment which may have occurred in the arrangement of the drums in the customary tiers. It is also an object of the invention to provide a wholly automatic and mechanical apparatus for handling drums which will preclude any possibility of the accidental dropping oi the same and thus to avoid economic losses thought to be an inescapable incident of the handling of containers of this character.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a drum loader which is simple and relatively inexpensive in its construction; which will materially speed up the engagement and disengagement of the containers and hence movement of the same, and which has relatively few working parts.

Other objects of the invention will become more apparent as this specification proceeds and the novelty of the device will be pointed out in the appended claims with the requisite degree particularity.

In the drawings forming a part hereof Figure l is a side elevation of a multiple drum loader embodying the principles of this invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the apparatus of Figure 1, with parts thereof broken away for sake of clarity.

Figure 3 is an end elevation of one pair of tongs in open or cocked position in relation to a drum.

Figure 4 is an end elevation of the tongs of Figure 3 in their closed or drum engaging position.

Figure 5 is an end elevation, partly in section, of the camming mechanism utilized to open and close the tongs, the same being in its distended position.

Figure Gis an end elevation of the mechanism of Figure 5 in its closed position.

Figure 7 is a plan view, partly in section, taken along the lines 1-7-1 of Figure 2.

Figure 8 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the ratchet mechanism used in camming the tonging devices.

Figure 9 is a top plan view, partly in section, of the device of Figure 8.

Figure 10 is a modification of the camming mechanism shown in Figure 5, and

Figure 11 is a perspective view of the ratchet means utilized in the modification shown in Figure 10 with its connecting links.

It is generally known, of course, that metal drums and like containers, such as that indicated by the numeral H} in Fig. 3, have end flanges H by which they may be gripped by a tonging mechanism carried at the end of a cable hoist for the lifting and movement of the same incidental to loading operations or the arrangement of the drums in tiers. In the interests of economical operation it is desired that a plurality of the drums ll) be simultaneously handled, and various ways and means have been resorted to for accomplishing that purpose. In the prior art,

however, the various tonging apparatuses have been deficient in that they required a manual setting or positioning or locking of the tongson the drum or they lacked means whereby the several drums in a tier could be positively and firmly gripped for lifting.

The present invention meets the needs of the industry in that it utilizes a Wholly automatic and mechanical means for engaging a drum, which means is controllable entirely by the operator of the hoisting mechanism even though he is remotely situated with respect to the drums to be moved.

In Fig. 1 there is shown a drum loading apparatus capable of simultaneously engaging and handling six drums. The principles of this invention, however, are susceptible of embodiment in apparatuses handling smaller or greater numbers of drurns and hence the device shown in Fig. 1 is for purposes of illustration only. Here a beam 15 is shown suspended, by means of a cable l6 secured to ears H, from a slinghook i8 carried on a hoisting cable. 19. The beam has a plurality or tonging devices 22 dependently arranged thereon at spaced intervals for engagement with the drums H). A cam shaft 23 arranged beneath and in parallel relation to the beam l5 extends through the various tonging devices 22 and carries a ratchet mechanism generally designated by the numeral 24. e The ratchet mechanism 24 is adapted to be actuated by reciprocal movement of a plunger 25 in rela tion to beam I5 to efiect the opening and closing of the tonging members 22 in a manner to become more apparent as this specification proceeds. I

The tonging mechanism will be best understood by reference to Figs. 2 to 4, inclusive. The

tong arms 30, each of which is provided with an inturned toe 3|, are pivotally suspended on pins 32 extending through hinge brackets 33 and 34 fixed on the under side of the beam 5. The arms 30 are provided with complemental cam plates 35 disposed adjacent their upper ends. Up

to this point it will be seen that the oppositely I pivotal I arranged tong arms hang free from their points of connection 32 to beam l5.

The arms 30 are adapted to be cammed into open and closed positions by means of cam rollers 36 carried at opposite ends of a cam arm 31 keyed or otherwise secured on cam shaft 23. This shaft is supported in spaced relation beneath beam l by means of extensions of the hinge brackets 33, the angled toes of which carry bearings 33in which the said shaft 23 is free to rotate. Upon rotation of shaft 23, in a manner yet to be described, it will be seen from Fig. 4 that the cam roller arm 31 will be likewise rotated and that the rollers 36 at the opposite ends thereof will engage the faces of the cams 35 carried at the inner upper ends of the arms 38. The faces of the cam plates 35 are relieved as at 42; adjacent their upper ends, so that movement of the arms under the influence of the cam roller 36 will be gradual rather than abrupt. Moreover, the lower portion 43 of the face of the cam plate 35 is cut away at an oblique angle so that as the cam roller at one end on? the arm 3! is moving in the depression 42 of the cam 35 on one of the arms, the opposite roller will be moving up the obliquely cut face 43 on the opposite cam 35 to effect substantially simultaneous and uniform opening of the tongs 30.

At approximately their midpoints cams 35 are provided with complemental depressions 44 into which the cam rollers 36 are adapted to drop to lock the tong arms in their open position (see Fig. 3).

In camming the tong arms 35 from open to closed position it will be apparent that rotation of the cam shaft 23 through 90 will be necessary. This partial and cyclic rotation of cam shaft 23 is accomplished by the camrning mechanism illustrated to best advantage in Figs. 2, 5 and 6. Here it will be seen that the beam i5 supports in spaced relation two pairs of dependent open ended cylinders 50, each telescopically receiving the hollow posts 5! upstanding on base 52 of plunger 25. The dependent cylinders 50 are secured on beam l5 by means of the upper and lower clamps 55 and 56, respectively, disposed about the beam and connected by the conventional bolts 53. Lower clamp 56 has an extended flange 57 through which there is passed a bolt 58, the latter projecting downwardly into cylinder 50 and through the bored end 59 of hollow post 5!. Bolts 58 carry at their lower ends a nut 60 and a washer 51 to serve as a stop means arresting relative movement of the plunger 25 in relation to beam l5. This relative movement between the members may be adjusted by any conventional means, such as the provision of threads 54 at the upper end of bolt 58 for engagement with a nut 65 bearing on flange 51, the end of bolt 58 being slotted as at 156 to receive any tool such as a screw driver. I

Reciprocal movement of plunger 25 in relation to beam I5 is transmitted to shaft 23 to affect the partial and cyclic rotation of the latter in the following manner: Fixed on shaft 23 there is provided a ratchet wheel Hi having four teeth H arranged at 90 with respect to each other. A ratchet lever 72 is rotatably carried on shaft 23 by means of the forked bearing block 13, the two parts of which straddle the ratchet wheel 70. As will be noted from Fig. 8, the bearing block 13 is split for ready detachment of the lever 12 from the shaft 23 and the parts'thereof are joined by the cap screws 14. The lever 12 contains a pawl urged into engagement with the teeth 11 of wheel ill by a spring 15. Aboss 13 projecting from the under side of lever 12 provides the means for connection of a link 80, the opposite end of which is connected to a boss 8! on base 52 of plunger 25. Base 52, it will be noted from Fig. 5, is provided with the runners on feet 83.

In Figs. 10and 11 there is shown a modification of the ratchet lever and actuating linkage therefor. Here lever 12 has a boss 96 on its upper side to receive a pin Si by which the twin curved links 92 are attached thereto. Links 92 are connected at their lower ends to boss 8! on the base 52 of the plunger 25. The particular advantage of this modification resides in the fact that it prevents any movement of the lever 12 and the links 92 past dead center, of a line drawn through shaft 23 and boss BI, and consequent jamming of the device independently of the function of washer 6! on bolt 58. Thus when plunger 25 is in its distended position (see dotted lines in Fig. 10) links 92, because of their curvature, arrest the movement of plunger 25 away from beam I5 when the pivotal connection of lever 12 and links 92, at pin Si, is considerably short of dead center, i. e., the line drawn through shaft 23 and boss 3|.

The operation of the device is as follows: Assuming that the tong arms 30 are in a starting position, that is to say the cooked position illustrated in Fig. 3, the operator lowers the whole mechanism to bring the feet 83 of plunger 25 to rest on the tops of a tier of drums iii. In so doing there will be, of course,. a need for substantial alignment of the mechanism with the tier of drums, at least to the point at which the tongs 35 are disposed opposite the respective drum ends. Misalignment of the drums longitudinally of the tier is a rarity, if possible at all, as the drums are uniformly laid side to side. Misalignment of the drums ill transversely of the tier does, however, sometimes occur but such condition will not interfere with the function of the device, as will presently be made clear.

Continued lowering of the mechanism toward the drums will cause posts 5| to telescope with cylinders 50 and link 85 or links 92, as the case might be, will urge ratchet lever i2 upwardly in its stroke counter-clockwise of shaft 23 (looking at Fig. 5). This movement will be from the position shown in Fig. 5, in which pawl '55 is engaged with a tooth H on ratchet wheel '55, to the position shown in Fig. 6, in which shaft 23 has been cranked through or a quarter turn.

Thus a quarter turn of shaft 23 (from the position of the tong arms 30 in Fig. 3) will revolve the cam roller arms 31 from a horizontal posi tion, in. which they look the tong arms 3! in open position, to the vertical position shown in Fig. 3, in which the cam rollers 36 carried by arm 31 are disengaged from the cams 35, thus freeing the tong arms 30 to swing freely of their own weight on their hinge pins 32 and into engagement with the flanges ll of drums 9.

In the event an individual drum is misaligned transversely of the tier, the tong arms 38 will adjust themselves accordingly, in that one tong will come to rest on the protruding drum, with its toe 3| under flange II, and the opposite tong will swing on its pivot 32 to similarly engage the opposite end of the drum though the latter be inside the common tier line. Thus all the drums in a given tier will be positively engaged for the lifting operation.

As the operator hauls away on the power cable I 9 the toes 3| of the respective tongs 30 are drawn upwardly into engagement with flanges ll of drums in and as the full weight of the drums carried on the arms the misalignment of any drum will be automatically corrected by the swinging of the tong arms 30 on their respective pivots 52.

As the lifting operation gets under way, with the tong arms 30 gripping the drums, plunger 25 is free to drop by gravity into its distended position (see Fig. 5) wherein link 88 pulls ratchet lever '12 downwardly and the pawl 75 engages the next tooth ll of ratchet wheel 70,

and thus set the mechanism up for the camming of the tong arms 30 to their open position.

Discharge of a load is affected by simply put ting the tier of drums down and lowering away on cable I9 to permit plunger 25 to be driven to ward beam [5, in the telescoping action of posts 5| and cylinders 50, whereupon link 80, or links 92, as the case may be, will urge ratchet lever 12 through its cranking motion to affect a quarter turn of shaft 23 and hence partial rotation of cam roller arm 31 from the vertical position indicated in Fig. 4 to the horizontal position shown in Fig. 3. In this movement cam rollers 36 move through the depression 42 and over the surface 43, respectively, of cam plates 35 and come to rest in the central depressions 44, to lock the tong arms 30 in their open or cooked position (see Fig. 3)

Since it is desirable to prevent the opening of the arms 30 beyond the necessities of normal op erations, stops 95 are provided at the upper outer ends of arms 30 to abut beam [5 and arrest further movement (see Fig. 4).

It will be seen from the foregoing that the preferred embodiment of the invention shown and described herein by way of illustration, is highly useful in the handling of drums and like containers and that provision has been made therein to meet such variances from perfect alignment of the containers as are commonly encountered in actual practice and to still obtain a positive gripping of the same. Since the principles of the invention are susceptible of embodiment in forms other than those shown and described in this application full protection is desired in accordance with the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. A drum loader comprising, a beam, opposed tong members pivotally supported by the beam, cam members carried by the tong members, a rotatable shaft supported by the beam, arms fixed on the shaft, rollers on the ends of each of the arms coacting with the cam members when the shaft is rotated to cause opening of the tone tang members and releasing the same for gravitational movement to their closed positions, said cams being characterized by complemental irregularitie in their resective faces which when engaged by the rollers will arrest said tong members in their opened or closed positions, and means actuated by contact with the drums for rotating said shaft.

4. A drum loader comprising, a beam, opposed tong members pivotally supported by the beam, cam members carried by the tong members, a rotatable shaft supported by the beam, an arm fixed on the shaft, rollers on the arm coacting with the cam members when the shaft is rotated to cause opening and closing of the tong members, ratchet means to affect partial rotation of the shaft, and means for actuating the ratchet means.

5. A drum loader comprising, a beam, opposed tong members pivotally supported by the beam, cam members carried by the tong members, a rotatable shaft supported by the beam, an arm fixed on the shaft, rollers on the arm coactin with the cam members when the shaft is rotated to cause opening and closing of the tong members, ratchet mean to affect partial rotation of the shaft, and a reciprocal plunger operatively connected with the ratchet means.

6. A drum loader comprising, a beam, opposed tong members pivotally supported by the beam, ca'm members carried by the tong members, a rotatable shaft supported by the beam, an arm fixed on the shaft, rollers on the arm coacting with the cam members when the shaftis partially rotated to cause opening and closing of the tong members, said cams being characterized by complemental irregularities in their respective faces which when acted upon by the rollers will cause said tong members to be opened and closed substantially simultaneously, ratchet means to affect partial rotation of the shaft, and a reciprocal plunger actuated by contact with the load to be engaged and operatively connected with said ratchet means.

JOHN A. POOL. CHARLES M. BARTI-IOLOMEW. MAXWELL V. JOHNSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 596,908 O'Neill Jan. 4, 1898 1,277,716 Grosvenor Sept. 3, 1918 1,673,237 Gerdes June 12, 1928 1,750,878 Coe Mar. 18, 1930 2 Kotowski Nov. 30, 1937 2,213,014 Owen Aug. 27,1940 2,215,844 Van Syckle Sept. 24, 1940 2,877,845 Westfall June 5, 1945 

